


Heart's A Mess

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 6B does not exist, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Stiles, Canon-Typical Violence, Cuddling & Snuggling, Getting Together, Living Together, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Mild Gore, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Recluse Derek Hale, Sharing a Bed, Warning: Kate Argent, post-6A/pre-6B, sbcabin, sterekbingo2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-07 21:16:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18881431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: After finally confirming once and for all that Stiles is Something, he decides to hunt down Derek and seek his help, the problem soon becomes figuring out what, exactly, he actually is... and how to deal with it once they find out





	Heart's A Mess

**Author's Note:**

> This entire fic was inspired by one of my all time favorite meta theories about Stiles being a Jackal, because I really, REALLY, need to do more Jackal!Stiles fics
> 
> https://anchoredtether.tumblr.com/post/115341602062/is-the-desert-wolf-a-jackal-and-how-stiles-could
> 
> Also, a quick **warning** , there IS a scene at the end with someone eating a peice of someone else's heart, so if that bothers you, this may not be the fic for you, or please skip ahead from the beginning of the last paragraph to the last couple of sentences, thank you!

_"Stiles...? Stiles.....? Stiles!!!"_

Gasping to life, Stiles sat up, wincing a little at the bright lights that immediately shone down on him, practically blinding him

"Stiles, are you ok?!"

"You mean other than being blinded by the lights? Yeah I'm fine...." he muttered, reluctantly opening his eyes and turning his attention back up to Lydia, who seemed far too distressed for there to not be something horrible happening

Wich, ofcourse meant-

"What happened?"

"You were in a car accident, Stiles," Lydia replied quietly, carefully moving to sit on the edge of the bed next to him

"You were with Scott, the two of you were on your way back to his place and something darted out in front of the jeep, you swirved and .."

"Well I guess it wasn't that bad, atleast, since I'm, you know, sitting up and talking an-"

"You died Stiles,"

That actually brought him to silence, his chest tightening, his heart sinking, as he turned to stare at his freind, a drop of sweat slowly rolling down he side of his face

"I ... what.....?"

"You died, Scott said... that your heart stopped beating, for two minutes,"

"Two minutes... and then Scott's CPR kicked in?"

"No, Stiles... Scott wasn't doing CPR, he was trying to get into the car wile he was on the phone with 911, the.. the wreck tossed him out of the jeep... and your door got smashed in, your legs were stuck under the dashboard,"

Stiles felt sick

He was pale as a sheet, staring up at Lydia with wide, timid eyes

"What...?"

"You came back to life on your own, Stiles, your heart started beating again all on it's own,"

"That.... that isn't possible..."

"But it is,"

For a moment- a breif moment- there was silence, before Lydia began to speak again

"I also looked up that program you told Scott about? There is no such thing, so... where were you really going?"

Stiles swallowed tightly, biting the tip of his tongue and staring own at the bed anxiously, his fingers twitching, his heart beating a little too fast for comfort.....

Shit

This really was one of the worst case scenarios

"I'm ... going to find Derek," he finally concluded, swallowing tightly

"Derek? What for?"

"Because.... I know that I'm not human, I'm _something_ , I just don't know what, I was hoping he could help,"

"And you never thought it was important to tell _us_ that?" Lydia frowned skeptically, crossing her arms over her chest

"I only really... self-confirmed it recently," he muttered back quietly, averting his eyes

"Besides, I just... I didn't want you guys to worry, you've got enough going on-"

"This is IMPORTANT Stiles!"

"I know! But... I don't know what digging into this could mean for me, I don't know what it could do... I don't want anybody to get hurt..."

"Why would any of us get hurt?" Lydia asked quietly

"Because ... when Theo came for us a few months ago... he said something to me that I didn't take to heart at the time but now.. I'm worried about it,"

"About _what_ , exactly?"

"Void," Stiles finally answered, his voice quiet and weak, his eyes downcast, staring at the sheets of the hospital bed anxiously

"Theo said that... he came for 'Void Stiles'... at the time I didn't think anything of it, I just ... assumed he was talking about the nogitsune, but what if he wasn't? What if he was talking about my... my powers? Whatever I am? Noshiko never said that Void and the Nogitsune were the same thing so... what if they aren't? Theo knew a scary amount of shit about us so... what if this was just another one of those things he knew?"

"Oh Stiles..." Lydia said quietly, her voice soft and a bit.. hurt, sympathizing, he guessed

"I don't want that to happen to you guys, for you to have to deal with that again... but ... but Derek can _handle_ it... he can... handle _me_..."

"And by 'handle', you mean _kill_ , don't you?" Lydia asked tightly, her eyes narrowed in annoyance and frustration

For a beat, things were silent

"Dammit Stiles, is that why you gave away your jeep!? You don't expect to come back!?"

"Maybe..."

Lydia sighed loudly, pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head slowly

"Ok, look.... I'll help you find Derek, then you will get your jeep back, go see him, and I swear to GOD Stiles, if I don't hear from you every single day, I'm going to hunt you down and kill you myself,"

"..... Right, sorry,"

"Mm-hm," she mumbled back, leaning back in her chair

All was silent for a short moment, before Stiles spoke again

"Lydia?"

"Yes?"

"... Thank you,"

The banshee smiled, leaning down to squeeze his hand

"What are freinds for?"

 

~+~

 

Derek sighed quietly, pinching the bridge of his nose as he marked off another location on the map

He had been looking for Kate for almost a year now, and he hated to admit that he was having a hard time tracking her down

He would get a lead and then lose it, he would catch onto a drop of information right as it dried up, he would find footprints and then they would disappear...

This was the fourth time in the last month that he'd found something potentially promising and then came to find out that it was actually nothing

It was only mid-afternoon but he was already exhausted...

Half-way through thinking about his next course of action, his head jerked up, a familiar and not entirely unwanted sound entering his ears as he hurriedly abandoned his work and started running off to open the door, staring in disbeleif as the human parked his jeep and shut the door, a backpack slung over one shoulder as he waved enthusiastically to Derek

"What the hell are you doing here?" Derek asked slowly, atleast pretending to be offended

"Wow, hello to you too, Assmunch,"

"No, Stiles, I'm serious, what are you doing here? How did you even find me?"

"Does 'it's a long story' count as an answer?" he asked, bypassing Derek with ease and stepping into the house- well, the log cabin that Derek had built for himself, wich served as his house

"Wow! Snazzy place! It's so warm and cozy!"

"Stiles," Derek said tensely, crossing his arms over his chest and pulling Stiles' attention towards him, the younger man now looking far more solemn and sedate than he had only moments before

"I'm something, Derek,"

"Oh you're something alright,"

"No I mean- ... I'm _a_ something,"

Upon Derek's confused look, Stiles merely sighed, shoulders sagging and lips turning into a frown

"I.. think you oughtta sit down, Derek,"

 

~+~

 

"So you aren't human then? You're sure?"

"Pretty sure yeah," Stiles said with a sigh, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his head tiredly

"I was afraid this would happen," Derek confessed, effectively drawing Stiles' attention

"Excuse me? You were _what_ now? What the hell Derek!? You thought I was a something and you didn't even say anything!?"

"Calm down Stiles, I didn't think you were something- and stop saying 'a something', it just sounds weird- I just... suspected you might be, but I didn't want to make a big deal of it in case I was wrong,"

"Well evidently you weren't," Stiles grumbled back irritably, much to Derek's slight guilt

They were both quiet for a moment, before Stiles finally spoke again

"So.... you gonna help me Big Bad Wolf?"

"Ofcourse I'll help you," Derek promised, sitting down across from the .... _whatever_ Stiles was and setting a cup of tea down in front of him

"Where do we begin?"

 

~+~

 

"Why don't we start with the obvious?"

Derek glanced up from the food he was cooking, turning to look over his shoulder at Stiles, who was presenting him with a rather childish crayon drawing of-

"A WITCH!"

"To my knowledge, Stiles, witches can't bring themselves back from the dead," Derek noted, turning back to the food

"Obviously you've never seen Once Upon A Time then..."

 

~+~

 

"What about a phoenix?"

Derek paused, his toothbrush hanging half out of his mouth as he looked over his shoulder at Stiles, who was, evidently, up bright and early with a modern copy of the beastiary that Lydia had helped put together before he had left, pointing to a picture of one of the firey birds with wiggling eyebrows

"That _would_ cover the resurrection aspects... but not much else, and don't phoenix corpses burst into flames and turn to ash before coming back?"

"Technically we don't know that for sure,"

Derek sighed, spitting his toothpaste into the sink

"Ok then, how would you like to test this theory? Shall I light you on fire?"

"..... You know what? Let's just put that one on the back burner for now,"

"Mm-hm,"

 

~+~

 

"Could I be a mermaid?"

Derek raised his eyebrows, placing a basket of strawberries in the shopping cart and staring at Stiles in confusion

"What? No, absolutely none of your abilities are at all similar to a mermaid's, what sense would that make?"

"None, but it'd be pretty cool," he noted, grabbing a few tomatos and putting them in a little plastic produce bag

"Stiles, we can't determine what you are by what sounds cool," Derek sighed tiredly

"I know, but it's been six days, I'm getting restless, I needed to suggest _something_ ," he reasoned as he put the bag in the cart

Derek was about to reply, but was quickly cut off

"Hey, can we get ice cream, or would it melt on the way back to your cabin?"

 

~+~

 

"Do you have an actual address?"

Derek, who had been flipping through the newspapper at the time, suddenly glanced down to the floor where Stiles was currently laying, working on his laptop

"Excuse-"

"I mean, can you get mail here?"

"No,"

"Really? Damn, do you have a P.O. box?"

"No,"

Who would send him mail, after all?

Cora sure as hell didn't, he called her on occasion but that was about it, and he lived off the land- having solar panels and a well and a propane tank and what not- so there was no need for utility bills

Why have a P.O. box?

Besides, it was safer that way, less ways for enemies to track him if he had no mailing address

"Really? Bigger damn,"

"Why?" Derek sighed lowly

"Last day of zine orders and I'm still here, I'm gonna send it to my dad's house then,"

...

Derek wasn't even going to ask

"Hey, do you think I could be a selkie?"

"Again- _no_ ,"

 

~+~

 

"Derek?"

Please don't let this be Stiles waking him up

"Hey, Derek?"

Gods, please don't let this be Stiles waking him up

"Derek we need to talk,"

Fucking Stiles waking him up...

"What is it Stiles?"

"What if I'm an alien?"

"Stop watching so much X-Files,"

"No come on, I'm serious!! What if I'm an alien!? I mean it would explain why nothing else seems to fit,"

....

As much as Derek hated to admit it, that wasn't actually wrong...

Slowly, he sat up, rubbing his eyes and staring at his freind- who was clearly looking worried- in the darkness before reaching over to turn the lamp on

His expression was clearly worried, not just joking the way Derek had originally assumed

"If you were an alien, I'm pretty sure you would smell different from human, ok?" he said softly, reaching out to take Stiles' hand and give it a soft squeeze

"I know that dormant genes don't give off a scent but... I'm pretty sure aliens are a little bit too different to not notice, and that those genes wouldn't be _dormant_ ,"

"How do you know though?" Stiles asked quietly, biting his lip anxiously

"I just do, you trust me, don't you?"

The not-human chewed his lip, nodding slowly and leaning in to suddenly give Derek a tight hug

"Ofcourse I trust you..."

Derek inhaled, swallowing tightly and returning the hug, eyes closing breifly

"Good... then _trust me_ , everything is fine, you may not be human... but you _are_ earthly, ok? I promise..."'

He just hoped that this promise was one he could actually keep...

 

~+~

 

"Why haven't we considered faeries?"

Derek glanced up from his cereal

Stiles was currently making a murder-board for him for Kate, it was an appreciated effort so Derek would humor him

"Because faeries can't bring themselves back to life?"

"Technically we don't know that, 'faery' is a really broad term with alot of sub-categories and sub-species, how do we know for sure there isn't a species that can come back to life? I mean, all of my other abilities check out, telekinesis? Check, intuition? Check, mildly advanced healing and strength? Check, having a weird secret name that no one has called me since before I hit puberty? Check,"

...

Huh

Well what do you know? He was pretty much right

"Alright then, we'll start looking into subspecies of faeries,"

Atleast it was progress.....

 

~+~

 

"Are male banshees a thing?"

Derek had just been in the middle of pulling the laundry out of the machine when Stiles asked that

Honestly, he had to think about it for a moment

He had never heard of any male banshees, but to be fair, he'd never heard of half of the shit that had happened in Beacon Hills either so he supposed that wasn't so unusual

"I doubt it, but I suppose it's something you can look into, though... in fairness, your powers aren't really that similar to Lydia's, are they?"

No, Stiles supposed

They really weren't...

 

~+~

 

"What about a jackal?"

Derek glanced up from his book, looking over the back of the couch where Stiles was currently hanging

They had been living together for about a month now and had made virtually zero progress on figuring out what Stiles was, only serving to figure out what he _wasn't_ instead- wich was still progress by process of elimination he supposed, just... not the kind of progress he had been hoping for

But Stiles was a surprisingly great roommate, and he had been helping Derek alot with his mission to hunt down Kate, so Derek certainly couldn't complain

Honestly, he was almost glad that they weren't close to finding any answers, it meant that Stiles would have a reason to stay even longer...

"Jackal are Egyptian, you're Polish, you can't be a Jackal,"

"Well yeah you'd think that but to be fair, wasn't that wendigo we chased who ultimately attacked Liam and got him turned into a werewolf a white guy? Wendigo are Native American but that guy certainly wasn't,"

".... Point, still, where did you even hear that word? I haven't heard of it outside of my mom's fairytales,"

"I read it in this article about different types of were-creatures based on region, I was hoping to find out something on werejaguars but instead, this happened, listen to this though, _Jackals, although capable of shapeshifting, are not notorious for it like most weres, and instead their powers are more closely related to that of a faery's, having strong telekinetic abilities, higher than usual intuition- especially in regards to sensing a person's true intentions, moderately advanced healing and strength, and a natural love of mischeif that at times results in trickster-like capabilities, Jackals are also closely associated with death and can often revive themselves, as long as the body is more or less in one peice to revive back into, Jackals are typically extremely intelligent and excel in games and tests involving the mind,_ see?! I mean, is this me or is this me? The only things it doesn't mention are my constant talking and my sardonic sense of humor!"

"You do have a point..." Derek said slowly

"Then this is it? We found it?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself, just because it sounds right doesn't mean it _is_ right, if that were the case, everyone who ever had to Google a health problem would either be dead or pregnant,"

"Wow, I can't believe you actually made a joke that relevan-"

"Is there anything else in the article?"

Blinking, Stiles realized he hadn't even looked, once it got to the part about intelligence he decided to squeal about it to Derek and thus hadn't finished reading it in the first place

"Oh... um, let me see..." he mused, clearing his throat as he began reading once again

" _Jackals are unique in their evolutions as their powers lay dormant initially and then, overtime, begin to flourish, Jackals typically awaken their powers over three different courses of maturity, the fist occurs after the Jackal experiences their first death, the second is commonly known as the 'void' state-_ seriously!?- _wich can only be reached after the first death, wile the first death initially awakens their powers, the void state allows them to begin using and controlling them, wile reaching the void state is different for everyone, a common factor is facing an extreme difficulty, trauma, loss, or life-threatening incident, during wich, the Void- the shadow self- will appear to the Jackal and challenge their true self, only after overcoming the shadow self and being born anew can the Jackal truly begin to access their powers,_ "

"God...." Derek breathed

Needless to say, this was sounding more and more accurate by the moment

" _The third and final step to fully coming into a Jackal's powers is the Truth step, to acheive this state, the Jackal must-_ "

Derek waited, but began to frown when he noticed that Stiles had abruptly stopped reading, tilting his head with concern

"Stiles...? What is it? What does it say?"

"It... says that in order to acheive my full power, I have to _eat a heart_ ,"

There was a pause, a beat of silence, before Stiles spoke again

"I guess now is a bad time to go vegetarian huh?"

 

~+~

 

Derek couldn't sleep

Not for lacking of trying, certainly, but....

"Der? You awake?"

Some part of him was actually glad that Stiles had come nocking on his door- well, so to speak

"Yeah," the werewolf called, sitting up in bed and reaching over to turn the lamp on

A second later, the bedroom door opened and Stiles crept inside, heading straight for the foot of the bed and perching there immediately

"Do you... think you could give me some advice?"

"I can try,"

In truth, Derek wasn't sure if he was really _good_ at giving advice...

But he certainly wasn't going to tun Stiles away- especially not now of all times

"Technically, it didn't say it had to be a _human_ heart,"

"I know,"

"Soooo I could always just... you know... get one from a butcher or something..."

"I know," Seto insisted calmly

Actually, it wouldn't be strange of a suggestion at all, as Derek had personally mentioned a few hours ago when they had this conversation the first time regarding non-human hearts

"But I don't know if that's something I even want to do ... I mean... do I _want_ to have those kinds of powers? I mean, whatever comes along with eating a fucking heart- human or not- that.... that's gotta be some heavy shit you know?"

"I know,"

"But then what if that's just being rediculous and worrying about nothing? Just because the way to access my powers fully is really creepy, that doesn't mean that it isn't a good idea to access them anyway,"

"You have a point there too,"

"So- ... so what should I do? Please Derek I don't... I don't know what to do..."

"I think..." Derek began slowly, reaching out to take Stiles in his arms, very gently wrapping him in a hug, squeezing tightly and rubbing his back

"I think you don't have to make a decision right this minute, I think there's nothing wrong with waiting until you're certain, one way or the other,"

Stiles, for a moment, was quiet, before starting to relax in Derek's arms

"... You really think so?"

"I do,"

The Jackal nodded slowly, his eyes sliding shut as peace finally began to return to him

"Ok," he agreed quietly

"... Ok...."

 

~+~

 

A month after finding out that he was a Jackal, Stiles...... was still living with Derek

They were working on his powers- what powers he had access to anyway- and in honesty...

Stiles hadn't gone back to his own bed that night they found out about the heart eating

They hadn't done anything physical, just cuddled, but they kissed the next morning and ever since...

Well, ever since their relationship had changed quite a bit, and in all honesty, Stiles was finding himself truly enjoying life with Derek (obscure Disney pun unintended)

Life in the cabin was peacefull, calm, and relatively happy

He and Derek got along really well and it was clear that, without all of the garbage both of their lives were constantly being put through in Beacon Hills, they could handle eachother with significantly less arguing and death threats

Life here was simple, yes, but a good simple, and once Stiles _insisted_ on getting a P.O. box, cable, and internet, he was pretty fucking happy

Sure he missed Beacon Hills but he knew that, for now anyway, this was the best place for him to be

And besides that, he was helping Derek track down Kate, and that had to be good for everyone, right?

In total he had spent just over two months in the cabin with Derek, and life was _great_

....

Until he learned exactly why Derek hadn't wanted a P.O. Box....

 

~+~

 

The sound of something banging against the door is what woke Stiles, at three in the morning, on a random Thursday night, in the middle of a thunder storm

In all honesty, he wasn't even surprised

Bolting up out of bed, he found that Derek was already up, creeping out of the bedroom, as if Stiles really could and would have slept through that horrible noise but would have woken up at the sound of the floor creaking

Rolling his eyes, the Jackal slid out of bed behind him and followed him down the stairs

Derek probably would have told him to go back to bed on any other occasion, but evidently, he must not have wanted to alert whoever was downstairs- assuming there was anyone down there to begin with- to their presence

Derek was already half-shifted, and Stiles quickly summoned his bat to his hand, starting to become increasingly glad that he was getting the hang of this telekinesis thing

Upon moving around the corner, he could see that the door had been blown off it's hinges- _great_ \- and there were muddy footprints inside the hall

"Can you tell who's here? Or how many?" he wispered, earning a small shake of Derek's head in response

"One heartbeat... hard to get a scent...."

Evidently though, they were about to find out _exactly_ who was there, as just a moment later, a pair of claws shot up from between the bars in the stair-rail, swiping against Derek's ankle and causing him to scream and tumble down the last several steps

"DEREK!!" Stiles shouted worriedly, hurrying to his side, but by the time he got there, there was already someone else standing over his boyfreind

A very unfortunately familiar face

"Hello Stiles, nice seeing you again,"

" _Kate_..." he snarled lowly- why was he not surprised?

"In the flesh," she smirked, cocking her gun and pointing it down at the two of them

"You know, I usually like playing with my food, but you two have been a thorn in my side for so long that now? Killing you is all the fun I need,"

With that, she fired a bullet, straight at Derek's head- or atleast, she tried to

What really happened was that Stiles, using his telekinesis, jammed the gun.... and forced the bullet to backfire into _her_ head instead

Kate collapsed to the floor, seemingly dead for now, but Stiles wasn't done yet

As Derek sat up and called out to him, his ankle evidently beginning to heal, the Jackal summoned a large nife from the kitchen... and plunged it straight into Kate's chest

"Stiles!! What the hell are you doing!?"

"I want to protect you, Derek," he mused simply, cutting the blade down in a messy but particular pattern

"I want to protect you but at my current level of power I might not be able to,"

"Stiles, wait-"

"I've thought about this alot lately, and I've made up my mind,"

With all too much ease, he sliced out a peice of Kate Argent's heart, and swallowed it, despite the protest hanging on Derek's tongue

Immediately, his eyes began to shimmer a bright gold, and he could feel the power rushing through him- his power, the power he was born with, that he had rightfully inherited

And he was finally putting it to use

"Don't worry Derek," he said softly, rising to his feet

"I won't let anyone disrupt our peacefull cabin life ever again,"


End file.
